Leaves have fallen and temperatures are falling, but the excitement is high. It’s officially basketball season.

The Harvard women’s basketball team looks to begin the 2007-2008 season just as it ended last season—with a bang.

“We have so many players back and we have so much potential in our freshman class—we only lost one kid,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith says. “We think we are the best, and we expect to win the title.”

The Crimson is returning a core of players, especially in a loaded backcourt. Senior co-captain Lindsay Hallion, a second-team All-Ivy performer last season after ranking second on the team in scoring and second in the league in both field-goal and free-throw percentage, returns to run the point. At shooting guard is junior Emily Tay, the team’s leading scorer last season with 12.9 points a game. She also led the team in assists and steals on her way to first-team All-Ivy honors. Junior Niki Finelli, a talented all-around player and dangerous three-point shooter, rounds out the backcourt.

The Harvard frontcourt faces more of a challenge. The loss of Christiana Lackner, a dogged rebounder and one of last season’s captains, is one of the biggest problems for the Crimson.

“We knew we had to fill Christiana’s shoes, and let me just officially state: no one has,” Delaney-Smith says.

This year’s squad carries seven talented freshmen who will certainly make an impact. Lindsey Louie, Christine Matera, Lisa Harchut, and Jackie Alemany will back up the veteran stars in the backcourt. In the frontcourt wait rookies Emma Markley and Claire Wheeler, each of whom could fill the rebounding void that Lackner left behind.

“We have some really talented freshmen that have already been playing, being put in situations that are game-like,” Hallion says.

This season, Harvard looks to control the pace of the game, whether that means running fast breaks or slowing the tempo and feeding the ball to the post.

“In the Ivies, the most important thing to do is try to dictate the tempo of any game you’re in,” Hallion said. “It doesn’t really matter what type of game you’re playing, as long as you can play it well and force the other team into playing that style.”

The team is feeding off the enthusiasm from last year’s league run, and expects to come out of the gates much stronger in the non-conference part of its schedule.

Last season, the Crimson lost its first six games, and the season looked as good as over for the young but talented team. But things began to turn around—Harvard won its last two non-conference games against San Jose and crosstown rival Boston College before an explosion during the Ivy stretch after Christmas.

“Adjustments really came together at the end of the season,” Hallion says. “We peaked in terms of being comfortable with each other and comfortable with the offense.”

After those wins, the Crimson didn’t look back. Harvard went 13-1 in Ivy League play to win the conference title, sustaining only one loss to Yale.

The Ancient Eight crown earned Harvard the No. 15 seed in the Dayton Regional bracket of the NCAA Tournament. In the first round, the Crimson was matched up against Maryland, the defending national champions, and could not keep up with the Terrapins in a 89-65 loss.

This year, Harvard will have many challenges in the non-conference portion of its schedule before the Ivy League slate begins. Perhaps its toughest non-league foe will be Pittsburgh, which is currently ranked 20th in the nation. Last season, the Panthers went 24-9 and returnsall five starters from last year.

In addition, the Crimson’s strenuous Ivy League schedule—with most of its second-half games coming on the road—will test its endurance and stamina. Princeton may pose Harvard’s toughest challenge: star forward Meagan Cowher, daughter of former Steelers coach Bill, plays an effective inside-outside game for the Tigers. But after dropping a winnable game last year at Yale, the Crimson knows the perils of league play as well as any team.

“It’s dangerous to point to one or two teams that are going to hurt you because the way the Ivy League schedule works—you play a game and then the next night, bam, you play again.” Hallion says.

The captain and her teammates expect great things from this season. And after watching last year’s title run, so do the Harvard fans. Basketball season is underway.